An article in Scientific American bringing a science and technology studies lens to Genetically Modified Organisms, provoked louder than normal responses from the pro biotech crowd. What can we learn from the exchange? Dr Andrew Flachs, Associate Professor of Anthropology at Purdue University, studied the role of seeds on farmer livelihoods in rural India as part of his book, Cultivating Knowledge. We discuss the arguments of the article and its malcontents to try and reach a broader understanding of what this debate is really about.

Episode Links

• Andrew Flachs personal website. On Twitter
• Cultivating Knowledge: Biotechnology, Sustainability, and the Human Cost of Cotton Capitalism in India, By Andrew Flachs.
• How Biotech Crops Can Crash and Still Never Fail, by Aniket Aga and Maywa Montenegro de Wit, Scientific American.
• Is Biotechnology Just New Colonialism? Talking Biotech Podcast, Dr. Kevin Folta.
• 'Woke' Scientific American Goes Anti-GMO, American Council on Science and Health, Cameron English.
• Whose Science? Whose Knowledge? Sandra Harding.
• A History of the World in Seven Cheap Things, Jason Moore and Raj Patel.
• Capitalism in the Web of Life: Ecology and the Accumulation of Capital, Jason Moore
• Works of Sidney Mintz.
• R. Vasavi’s work on the Green Revolution: Harbingers of Rain: Land and life in South Asia. Shadow Space: Suicides and the Predicament of Rural India.
• Paul Robbins’ contributions to the Intended Consequences
• Rock, J. (2019). “We are not starving:” challenging genetically modified seeds and development in Ghana. Culture, Agriculture, Food and Environment, 41(1), 15-23.
• Dowd-Uribe, B. (2014). Engineering yields and inequality? How institutions and agro-ecology shape Bt cotton outcomes in Burkina Faso. Geoforum, 53, 161-171.
• Andrew Flachs and Paul Richards on the role of performance on agricultural systems.
• Indian millet hunger reduction program.
• Learning to Love G.M.O.s, by Jennifer Kahn, The New York Times
• Montenegro de Wit, M., Kapuscinski, A. R., & Fitting, E. (2020). Democratizing CRISPR? Stories, practices, and politics of science and governance on the agricultural gene editing frontier. Elementa: Science of the Anthropocene, 8.
• Genetically Modified Democracy, by Aniket Aga.
• Freedom Farmers: Agricultural Resilience and the Black Freedom Movement
• Researchers can restore the American chestnut through genetic engineering. But at what cost? The Counter

Landscapes is produced by Adam Calo. A complete written transcript of the episode can be found on Adam’s newsletter: Land Food Nexus. Send feedback or questions to [email protected]. Music by Blue Dot Sessions: “Kilkerrin” by Blue Dot Sessions (www.sessions.blue).